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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659771">The Nova and The Wraith</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDorkyTomboy/pseuds/TheDorkyTomboy'>TheDorkyTomboy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NOS4A2 (TV 2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:53:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,177</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27659771</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDorkyTomboy/pseuds/TheDorkyTomboy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What truly happens when fire meets ice?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Charlie Manx/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Lightning in a Bottle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Charlie Manx. An enigma, truly. Most believe that Charlie's presence is an omen, as most who cross his path aren't usually seen again. There was one woman however, who thought quite the opposite. Her name is Lydia Lestat, and one could say that she has quite the fiery personality. She is mostly seen riding around in her 1970 Chevrolet Nova, flying down the street then suddenly disappearing. Leaving only a couple sparks in her wake. Many wonder where she goes, but honestly it's probably better if you don't know. </p><p>But as of right now, she finds herself at Charlie Manx's house (otherwise known as Sleigh House) in Gunbarrel, Colorado. She rides up on her 1980 Harley Davidson Dyna Low Rider. She puts the kickstand down and gets off the bike, taking off her helmet and hanging it on the handlebar. She takes a mini cooler that she had hanging off the back of her bike and starts walking towards the trees. "Millie." She calls out. "Millie Manx." She notices movement, and walks towards it. As she walks through she calls out once more. "Millie." She puts the cooler on the ground and opens it, proceeding to sit behind it. "I'm a friend of your dad's. I'm here to help you." Nothing. "I brought food. I figured you probably haven't eaten in a while." She hears movement in the trees once again, and a little shadow creeps its way towards the cooler. The shadow gets a bit closer then stops, so Lydia scoots back a little bit to give it a bit of room to make up its mind as to whether or not she's trustworthy. The cooler is finally opened and a freshly skinned hare carcass is presented to the bloodthirsty child. "I made a promise to your Dad that I would take care of you if he wasn't able to. And obviously right now, he's not." Millie eyed her up and down, deciding whether or not she should trust what this person is saying. "Alright, I'm sure that you're not all that fond of people right now. I get that. But your father wanted me to keep you safe, so you need to help me figure out a way for you to trust me so that I can take you somewhere warm, and give you at least a damn pillow." Millie giggled softly. "How about, you ask me a question that only your father would know." She raised an eyebrow. "I don't have any better ideas. And he did mention you a few times, so I've got to be able to answer one of your questions." Millie disposed of the remains of the carcass and wiped her hands off in the snow. "Ok. What was the nickname my dad gave me?" Lydia leaned back on her hands and sighed. "Wow, that's a good one." She furrows her brows before she answers, making it seem as if she really had to think about it. "I believe that it was sugar plum, was it not?" Millie gave a slight look of shock. "How do you know that?" She chuckled, "We saw a Christmas flyer that had sugar plums on it and he said that it reminded him of you." She gave a sad smile to Millie. "Do you trust me now? At least enough to get you out of here?" Millie nodded and the both of them started to stand up. Lydia grabbed the cooler and started heading towards her bike, motioning Millie to follow her. Once everything was secure Lydia hopped on the bike and put the helmet on Millie. "You ready?" Millie took one more look at the remaining pieces of her father's house then slightly nudged Lydia's back with the helmet. </p><p>The engine of the bike roared to life, and they were on their way. Halfway down the road, all of a sudden Lydia starts going a lot faster, and faster, and faster, until all of a sudden sparks started flying in a circular motion until it created a ring and brought them down what looked like a tunnel with a bright blue road that had electric currents running through it, and once that road ended they went through another ring and ended up at what Millie could only assume was Lydia's home. Lydia drove towards a garage and shut the bike off once they were close and let Millie off the bike, she handed her the helmet and Lydia pushed the bike into the garage next to her car. "Alright, follow me." She said and motioned Millie towards a cabin. Once they were in the house Lydia showed Millie where everything was. When they made their way back to the living room Millie sat on the couch and Lydia sat opposite her on a recliner. "So, that's about all I can think of right now. Make yourself comfortable. If you've got anything you wanna ask me, feel free." She said as she pulls a lever on the side of her chair, extending the footrest. "Actually, I do have one question." Millie says as she lays her head on the arm of the couch. "Shoot." Lydia says as she scoots back further in the seat of the chair so that she sits upright. "How did you and my father meet?" Lydia sighs and pushes the footrest back into the chair so that it's no longer reclined. "Well, we met at Parnassus. Which, is a bar for people like me and your father who have...abilities. I had just come in from joyriding down the Night Road to grab a quick drink and talk to Abe, when I noticed him sitting alone at a table. And, something about him just drew me in. I don't know if it was the blue trench coat, or the mug that he was holding with a candy cane dangling off of it. God, I don't know how he drank those damn peppermint twists. Bleah. But anyway, we got along really well and...the rest is history." Millie gave a slight smile, then her face quickly fell. "What's wrong?" Lydia asked as she moved to sit next to her. Millie rested her head on her shoulder and started sobbing. "Hey, it's ok." Lydia cooed as she rubbed Millie's back. She sniffled, "I just miss him." Lydia puts her head down upon Millie's, "Me too, kid." They stay like that for a few moments, before Lydia speaks up again. "You know what? I think me and you have had a long day, and it's time to go to bed." The young girl wipes her tears as Lydia leaves for a minute and brings out a fully made cot bed and sets it right near the fireplace in her living room. "There, I gave you my most comfortable pillow and my favorite blanket." As soon as Lydia turns around and sees that Millie's still in her blood-stained soldier uniform, she runs back and gets the girl some pajamas. "Alright, make yourself comfortable. I'll be back in a sec." Lydia heads into the kitchen to make some hot chocolate as Millie gets herself situated. As she's mixing the chocolate into the warm milk, she notices a surge of electricity shine through her hands. "Gotta keep that under control." She whispers to herself. She finishes making the drinks and heads back to the living room. "You all set in there?" She asks Millie before entering. "Yeah" Lydia watches the girls eyes widen when she sees the size of the mug that she's giving her. Millie slowly sits on the cot and softly blows onto the cup before drinking it. Lydia mirrors her actions, sitting on her recliner. She picks up the remote for her tiny flat screen TV and flips through the channels until she finds something that doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. She ends up landing on <em>Spongebob Squarepants</em>. She looks back at Millie, who's eyes are glued to the TV. Lydia reclines her chair once again, and that's how they spend the rest of the night. </p><p>Eventually when Lydia turns her head again, she notices Millie sleeping soundly, buried underneath the blanket. Lydia turns off the TV, pushes in the footrest once more and takes their cups to the kitchen sink. She waited a few moments, making sure that Millie was asleep. Then snuck back out into the night and went into the garage. She opened up the backseat door on the left side and dragged the body that she had in the back out into the light. She grabbed the lapels of the black jacket that the corpse wore and pulled him completely out of the car. She then turned it around so that she could drag it by its shoulders into her cabin. She takes the body downstairs where she has set up a little nook for the corpse, considering she's not planning on it being a corpse for much longer. She lays it down on its own makeshift bed, and moves it so that it looks more like it's sleeping rather than it being dead. "Well Charlie, this wasn't exactly the reunion I was hoping for. But, I guess it'll have to do for now."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Ignition</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Lydia walks into Parnassus, high on adrenaline after going on a joyride. She notices 'Deck the Halls' playing through the bar, which she found a little odd. Considering it wasn't anywhere near Christmas. "Hey Abe!" She says to her favorite patron with the oversized glasses, heading over to the bar as she asks the bartender for a whiskey on the rocks. "Whiskey is quite the drink for a lady." She hears from someone behind her. She's not all that much surprised about that comment coming from the body she sees before her. A man wearing a dark blue trench coat, with slicked back hair parted to the side. "A peppermint twist is quite the drink for a man. As is that coat of yours." Lydia sits across from him at his little table. "It was somewhat of a trend back in my day." He says as he takes the candy cane that hung from his mug and spun it around in his drink. "Yes, a trend I believe was popular with chauffeur's 'back in your day'." He looks up at her in surprise. "How could you--" Lydia stops him with a wave of her hand. "You'd be shocked about how much I can find out a lot about people within the first few minutes of meeting them." He raises his well defined eyebrows, "I'll say." He moves his drink aside and leans closer to Lydia so that their faces almost touch and whispers near her ear, "Are you also...an immortal?" She smirks as she responds, "As close as you can get to it." He leans back and takes a swig of his drink. "You should be careful, there are people that would kill to unlock the secret of living life..." He pauses to think of a fitting word to end his sentence. "Past the expiration date?" He turns back to her and smiles as he raises his mug towards her, "Exactly." She raises her glass and clinks it against his mug then they both take a drink. After a few hours, Lydia decides that it's time for her to head home. "Alright, I think it's time to head out before these drinks actually start to have an affect on me." She gets up to leave and tries to pass the man before he lightly grabs her arm to stop her. "Did you happen to pick up my name in those first few minutes?" She looks down at him and smiled, "No, which means you certainly didn't get mine." He moves his hand and extends it towards her, "Charles T. Manx, at your service." She mirrors his actions and they shake, "Lydia Lestat. Very nice to meet you Mr. Manx." He raises his hand in protest and stands up, "Please, call me Charlie." She looks up at him and smiles, "Alright, Charlie." Manx motions his arm towards the door, "Shall we?" They walk out of the bar and head to their respective vehicles, she notices that his is quite the antique and can't help but marvel at it. "Hey, Charlie!" He looks to where he heard her voice and sees her walk back over, "I'm sorry, but I needed to ask. Is that a Wraith?" Charlie laughs to himself, "That it is." Lydia gives the car a once over. "Wow. It has the suicide doors and everything." Charlie found himself enamored at her reaction to his car. "Alright, I'll actually leave now." She heads to her bike with a quick little 'Bye' thrown at him, and then she's gone in a flash. Quite literally.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Millie awoke to the smell of apple and cinnamon. The little girls sits up and rubs her eyes, then makes her way to the kitchen to see Lydia making oatmeal. "Good morning, sunshine." Millie sits down at the small table and Lydia sets both of their bowls down. "Feel better today?" The girl nods her head. "It smells like Christmas in here." Lydia glances at her, the briefest bit of sadness having washed over her face. "Speaking of Christmas," The girl looks up from her food, wondering where this conversation could be heading. "I know that your Dad had Christmasland and all that, so I didn't know if you wanted to celebrate it or not this year." The girl shrugs and starts to poke at her food. "I figured that you deserved a little Christmas, at the very least. And honestly, it'd have to be considering that it's Christmas Eve and...I've got nothing but the smell of Christmas being wafted through my house." The girl giggled, and pondered the idea of a 'small' Christmas for a moment. Her father probably would've found the idea preposterous, but she thought that maybe a small Christmas was exactly what she needed. "I want to do a small Christmas." Lydia smiled at her. "Yeah? Alright, first things first. We need a tree." Lydia puts her spoon down, gets up and looks out her window. "How about that one?" The little girl follows her and looks towards where she's pointing. It's a fairly small tree. But considering where Lydia lived, it was perfect. Millie nods at Lydia, "Alright, let's finish breakfast. I'll have you write a list and I'll work on the tree." Millie looks at Lydia confused, "Wait, isn't it too late to send Santa a list?" Lydia kneels back down and pats the girls shoulder, "Listen kid, Santa's magic. I'm sure you're not the only person to have a last minute Christmas list be sent to him." The girl hurriedly finishes her breakfast, and Lydia hands her a pencil and paper then leaves her to her own devices. Lydia puts on her coat and her boots then heads outside. She comes up to the tree that they picked, looks around to make sure no one could be watching. Then strikes the tree down with a small concentrated lightning strike. She then drags the tree back to the cabin, and sets up a water bowl and stand before she brings it in. She sets it up in the corner of the living room, and studies it, trying to decide what she needs for them to decorate it. Lydia checks on Millie in the kitchen, "Alright girlie, you think you'll be good her by yourself for a bit?" Millie nods. "Where are you going?" She asks with a raised eyebrow. "I haven't celebrated Christmas for years so...I've got nothing. Literally. Nothing." She gets ready and stops herself before heading out the door, "Hey, did you finish your letter to Santa?" She hears footsteps run to the door and the girl hands her the list. "I'm gonna mail this when I'm out. You sure you're good?" Millie nods. "Okay, I'll see you in a couple hours kid." Millie says 'Bye' before she shuts the door. Lydia gets into her car and opens the letter and is only slightly surprised when she finds only one thing written. </p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Dear Santa, The only thing I want for Christmas is my father. I don't care if I don't get toys or anything for the rest of my life, I just want my father the way he was before Christmasland was ever thought of. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Sincerely, Millicent Manx.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>The letter almost makes Lydia want to cry. Almost. But she knows that Millie will get what she wants, but right now she's on a mission to make a last minute Christmas happen. She stays true to her word, as far as only being gone for a couple of hours. She wraps up all the gifts and her and Millie decorate the tree. The tree has just enough on it to look Christmas-y and currently has a Santa hat in place of the angel. "What do you think Millie?" She looks up a Lydia with pure joy, "I love it." Though the smile slowly fades from her face. "Hey kid, come here." Millie turns around and sees Lydia with an outstretched arm asking for a hug, which Millie gladly gives. "I know you miss him. I do too. But we can still think of him at Christmastime, can't we? Enjoy the thing we know he enjoyed the most?" The girl sighed. "Aside from being your father of course." Millie let out a tiny giggle. Lydia looks at the time, "Alright, Santa's gonna be here in a few hours which means that you've gotta go to bed." She furrows her brows at Lydia, "You too." Lydia smirks, "Alright, alright. I've got one more thing to do, and I'll go to bed." The girl gets up and heads to the cot, but Lydia stops her. "You can sleep in my bed tonight kid, I'll sleep in the chair. I'm not gonna be in bed for quite a bit." The girl quickly runs to Lydia's room and jumps on the bed. Quickly covering herself in Lydia's comforter and snuggling into the pillows. "Goodnight, girlie." The girl yawns and quietly lets out, "Goodnight, Lydia." Lydia slowly shuts the bedroom door and quietly makes her way out of the house. She spends a majority of the night tirelessly piecing the Wraith back together again, because there is no bringing Charlie back without the Wraith. Once she gets the Wraith up and running again, the next challenge is doing the same with Charlie. She takes the man from downstairs, takes him into the garage and places him in the drivers seat and waits. The car is running, he's in the car, this should work. After a while she begins to get worried. She goes through the passengers side and tries to simply wake him up but before she can shake him he sits up and takes in as much air as possible. "Charlie!" Lydia shrieks. Of course, this isn't Charlie Manx yet (at least in his terms). With his wrinkled skin, his almost complete lack of hair and his one blind eye. But he slowly begins to shift into who Lydia remembers. The man with the full head of black hair and the chocolate brown eyes that she usually found herself becoming lost in. "Lydia? How?" He looks around confused, still trying to catch his breath as Lydia wraps him in a hug. "You're back. You came back." He pulled her away softly, and looked at her. Really looked at her, almost making sure he's not in a dream. "<em>You</em> brought me back Lydia. I didn't do anything." Lydia let out a relieved sigh. "Millie's going to be so happy to see you. She's gonna think it's a Christmas miracle. I mean, hell, I almost believe it is!" She embraces him in another hug and he hugs her back and holds her tightly. "Thank you." He says into her shoulder. She pulls away, "Don't thank me yet, I gotta find a way to fit you under the tree." Charlie looks at her with pure confusion. "I'm kidding." He lets out a relieved sigh. "But seriously, I don't know where I'm gonna hide you from her. I mean, I guess the basements works. You'd have to spend the night down there and I'll let you know when to come up. I'll give you a wake up call and everything." Lydia sighs, and brushes her hair back from her face as she sits back in the passengers seat. She starts to wave in front of her face. "I'll tell you what. First things first, you're taking a shower. You smell like death." They both let out a giggle. They both quietly head back inside and go downstairs. She pulls out some clothes that she got in preparation of this until he's able to get more of his own clothes, then grabs all of the gifts that she got for Millie. "Shower, change and go to bed. I'll wake you up later." Lydia lays all of the gifts out, steals her blanket from the cot, heads to her chair and goes to bed.</p><p> </p><p>"Lydia...Lydia...Lydia..." Millie shakes the woman to wake her up. "Look, Lydia! Santa came!" Lydia rubs her eyes and sits up, "Alright, alright kid. Give me a sec to wake up." Lydia stretches and lets her eyes adjust to the brightness of the morning. "Look Lydia he even got me a stocking! Can I open it?" Lydia gets up from the bed and straightens herself out, "Yeah, just wait a sec. I'm gonna grab something from downstairs, and when I come back up you can open stuff." Lydia quickly goes down the stairs to wake up Charlie but she pauses for a moment to admire how peaceful he looks when he's sleeping, she almost feels bad having to shake him awake. But she does it anyway. Before she heads up she rips big chunk of wrapping paper and crumples it into a ball. She runs back upstairs and throws the wrapping paper ball into the firepit with a couple pieces of wood to start up the fireplace. "Okay kid, you can open up your presents now." Millie was so surprised at the sheer amount of candy that was in her stocking. And soon the living room was full of toys, clothes, shoes, basically whatever Lydia felt that the kid really needed. And when the kid was done unwrapping, and the fireplace was roaring with the amount of wrapping paper that had been thrown into it. Millie looked around and sighed with the biggest smile on her face, exhausted from unwrapping all of her gifts. "Are you ready for your last gift, girlie?" Millie quickly turned her head towards Lydia, "I have more?" Lydia pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows, "Well, just one more to be exact." Lydia heads towards the basement door and knocks on it three times loudly. "Alright, kid. Sit on the couch and close your eyes, okay?" Millie nods and hops onto the cot, covering her eyes. Lydia opens the basement door quietly and brings Charlie into the living room and places him a bit away from the kid. She takes a couple steps closer to Millie, "Millie, did you get everything you wanted for Christmas?" Millie nods. Lydia leans her head to the side, "That's not what Santa told me. He told me that you wanted one thing for Christmas, and I know that it wasn't wrapped underneath that tree." Lydia steps to the side, "Alright kid, open your eyes." Millie slowly meets the gaze of her father's eyes. She runs up and gives him the biggest hug that she could and slowly started to cry. Which in turn, made Charlie cry. And almost made Lydia start to cry. Lydia could hear hundreds of 'I missed you's' and 'I love you's' being passed between the two of them. Millie pulled away and outstretched her arm towards Lydia, who joined the family hug. After a moment, Millie pulls away and wipes the tears from her eyes. "Wait, I had something for Lydia." The little girl runs to Lydia's room and comes back with an envelope. "You made something for me?" Millie nods excitedly. Lydia opens the envelope and pulls out a picture that Millie drew. The picture had her, Millie and her bike going through the Supersonic Highway, as Lydia calls it. Which was drawn pretty accurately with the light blue road and even some blue electric currents flowing through it. "Awe, Millie. I love it so much." She hugs the girl and smiles down at the drawing again. "You know what? I think this has found its permanent spot, on the fridge." Lydia gets up, heads to the fridge and takes the strongest magnet to hang up the picture with. When Lydia goes back into the living room she finds Millie and Charlie hugging each other on the cot. Lydia goes over and lightly ruffles both of their hair and gives them both another hug. Millie softly mutters, "Best Christmas ever."</p>
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